Isaiah 3- 4:6

I approached Isaiah chapter 2 as an intellectual, theological puzzle and struggled to find any answers- and then read chapter 3, which is pure poetry. Not pretty, sentimental rhyming type of poetry, but words used as art in the best sense, to tell truth. Bruggemann talks about how we live in a prose-flattened world, where we expect truth to come in scientific, logical, rational or mathematical ways and are losing the ability to see truth in art. My daughter and I watched part of King Lear yesterday, and she commented how, compared to drama and film of today, Shakespeare takes so long to say anything. Characters have speeches lasting for pages, where they find multiple ways of essentially saying the same thing- but Shakespeare knew something about writing that today's scriptwriters, political speech-makers and twitter users have lost.

So perhaps we should try reading Isaiah chapter 3, which really extends until verse 6 of chapter 4, as poetry. Listen to the cadences of the roll call in verses 2 and 3, as the pillars of society are demolished. Hear the tragic comedy of the nakedness of those who had sought to outdo others with their glamour, in verse 17, and the verbal piling up of possessions in verses 18 to 23.

This is truth- an expose of the reality of a society not very different from ours in the West, but with all the seductive, beguiling art of a memorable advertising phrase or a glamourous photo-shoot turned back to front and used to reveal the rotting stench that these lives are built upon.